When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [36]
If you just dole out rewards as a bribe when your dog is misbehaving or not paying attention in order to lure him back to you, that puts the dog squarely in the driver’s seat—he can just cruise along and do his own thing until you notify him that his next goodie is ready. That puts you Behind Your Dog. Likewise, if you always initiate a session by showing a dog the reinforcer, and then use it to lure the dog around, you may get the behavior you want. But your dog will only have learned to follow a lure, he will not have learned that he needs to keep his eye on you. Instead, your dog needs to understand that: 1) you will be ignoring any undesirable behaviors, including the behavior of not paying attention to you; and 2) he has to come to you and solicit rewards by offering behaviors. This is what I call Getting In Front Of Your Dog.
Piggy Pointer
If you are In Front Of Your Dog, you do not need a specific command for attention— just being with you is a cue for your dog to pay attention. And if you give your dog a cue for some behavior and he does not respond, do not repeat the cue. Wait at least ten seconds and try again. If your dog still does not respond, you probably need to do more training for the cue in that context.
Getting In Front Of Your Dog all comes down to timing and management. For instance, if you know you will be busy around the house, and you know your dog might get into mischief, put your dog in a crate for a while. Or keep him with you and reinforce him often for just hanging out quietly with you. Train when you can, and if you can’t train, manage the situation so the dog will not do anything wrong. If your dog does not sit and/or pay attention to you the first time you ask, the lunch counter is closed and he missed his opportunity to get a treat. It takes a little thought at first, but eventually it will be second nature to set up your dog so he is always doing the right thing.
Lots of people interpret a “fun” training session as one where they continually speak to their dog in a high, squeaky voice, and dance around in a “fun” manner. Many dogs are actually backed off by this kind of behavior—motivational does not mean “nice,” motivational means that which motivates a particular dog. Dogs tend to be drawn into a composed handler with a soft smile. If your dog is shy or reluctant, cheerleading-style handling will actually make the problem worse. General silly behavior makes you look positive and motivational to other humans, but it is, at best, just white noise to your dog. You want to have a squeaky voice or a crazy dance in your basket of reinforcers (I certainly do), but assuming a generally goofy persona is not communicating anything to your dog. In fact, if you are constantly streaming meaningless praise and cheerleading your dog in the hope that he will be encouraged to do what you want, you will have ruined one of the best and handiest reinforcers you have available. Your dog won’t care about praise and attention anymore because he gets them all the time for no reason. Even worse, although you think you are “encouraging” your dog to follow along with your plans, you might actually reinforce your dog’s non-responsive behavior.
Make no mistake, praise and exciting “happy” sounds are reinforcers—you want to give you dog plenty of them, but after he has done something for you, not before. Your goal is to have an aura as still and large as a mountain beneath which all the doggie treasures of the world are buried. A mountain doesn’t leap about and squeak, but somehow it is there in your field of vision. It is always in front of you. That is how you need to be to your dog.
Just finding out what motivates your dog and using those things in your training sessions to infuse behaviors with excitement is a piece of the puzzle, but Getting In Front of Your Dog is